Regional Dishes You Didn’t Even Know You Wanted to Try

Travel adventure, for me, includes the chance to try some of the local dishes that I don’t find at home. Not some new, fussy French or Italian fine meal but the foods the locals share at the small diners or church suppers. In past travels over the years, I’ve enjoyed pork tenderloin sandwiches in Iowa, pasties in northern Minnesota, scrapple in eastern Pennsylvania, loco moco in Hawaii, chicken fried steak in Texas, and conch fritters in Key West. That said and with all due respect, I’ve politely declined fried cheese curds and a limburger sandwich in Wisconsin.

The goal is to experience what the locals enjoy – what they consider favorite taste sensations. The meals that people comment about when they ask you if you’ve tried _______? I’ve learned that across America, many of these dishes have in common ample calories and a lot of artery-clogging animal fat. That doesn’t mean I’ll avoid them. I don’t plan to gorge on these treats – just an occasional sampling here and there.

Bowl and a roll, chislic, and runza

And despite all the local favorites I’ve consumed over the years, there are still a few the top of my foodie bucket list that I haven’t tasted. First comes bowl and a roll: a bowl of beef and bean chili with a warm, sticky vanilla-frosted cinnamon roll on the side. That’s what I might encounter in German-immigrant areas of the northern Midwest. I’m told that locals dip the roll in the bowl as they enjoy the meal.

Then comes the chislic, the state nosh of South Dakota. It’s usually chunks of beef or venison fried in lard or grilled and served alongside crackers or Texas toast. Next is that Great Plains handheld pie, the runza, a cousin of the pasty. This portable meal is made with a soft yeast dough filled with a mix of sautéed ground beef, cabbage, and onion, seasoned with garlic and caraway, sometimes with a layer of cheese for good measure.

Totchos, Snickers salad, hangtown fry, and Hot Browns

And how about totchos? The local Oregon favorite shown above is a combination of tater tots, ground beef sautéed with taco seasoning, covered with shredded cheddar and baked in the oven. A full heartburn meal.  Finally, who could turn down a Snickers salad, popular in potluck suppers in Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, made with apples, chopped Snickers bars, Cool Whip, and instant vanilla pudding, all mixed together in a bowl.

For my next trip to northern California, I want to try the local hangtown fry, an omelet with bacon and oysters invented during the Gold Rush. And if I get to Louisville, Kentucky, I will surely attempt to find a Hot Brown, an open-faced sandwich of turkey and bacon, covered in Mornay sauce or cheese and baked or broiled till the top is crisp. But living in New England means I’m more likely to try specialties such as stuffies (stuffed clams) in Rhode Island or a chow mein sandwich in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Hoppel poppel

And, since I’m going out to visit my mother in Illinois for her birthday, maybe I’ll take her to breakfast for some hoppel poppel, the local version of something the folks in Rochester, N.Y. call the garbage plate.

So many new things to try. I always seem to find some local new favorite wherever we go. How about you? What’s your food discovery when traveling afar? Maybe a donair from Halifax, Nova Scotia?

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